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Thursday, April 20, 2017

Black boys imagining Black Panther covers

One of the activities for our "Language Arts and Leadership" conference oriented participants to the many variant covers for Black Panther #1. The high school students got a chance to use the tablets to view the 25 different covers.

After presenting the information, I asked the students: what kind of variant cover would you design? What would the cover look like?"

What follows are some of their responses:

• "I would design a cover that catches others’ eyes, representing black power. The cover will look like a lion taking off its mask revealing a man, symbolizing that the man has a heart of a lion."

• "I would design a heroic but strong cover. It would be the Black Panther fighting against a large amount of enemies. It would be fascinating to viewers because of the art and visual but the message of never giving up for what you believe no matter the odds."

• "I would design the cover to show his true strength."

• "The cover of my Black Panther comic would be a simple strip of comics showing his growth from a little boy to his rise as the Black Panther."

• "The cover of my comic would tell the story of the Black Panther’s childhood into becoming what he is now. The design I would use to tell such a story from the get-go is a little boy, to a teenager, to the Black Panther."

• "My cover would symbolize black struggle."

• "I would design an image of the Black Panther surrounded by panthers."

• "The cover I would create would depict the black panther standing boldly in front of a mass of people who look as thought they’ve been in some sort of struggle. This would show how Black Panther is the figure that represents the unheard voice of those in his shadow."